One of the Clan
by DemeterGoddess
Summary: This is my first story, please do not be harsh! Rated T for future language. ***Story*** All the four kittens can remember is sitting with their mother. A flash of black. Now, they are here.
1. Chapter 1

If the moon had shone like this on any other night, it would have been a diamond

Tonight though, it was the pale liquid in a vat of poison.

_Gone_

The light of the night sky was brilliant as the young family returned to their den. The mother had taken her kits out on their first walk; they were advanced for their age.

The parents parted; the large male left to hunt for his mate and three kits. As prey was scarce, he had to go far to find any, and would not be back for hours.

As soon as he was out of sight and earshot, they moved in.

_Away From Home_

The kits didn't like it here. They could no longer smell the sweet scent of their mother and her milk, or their father and the smell of the delicious prey he brought home.

All they could smell was the tangy metallic scent that sometimes clung to prey, only this time, it was different, wrong.

All they could feel was the rough netting that surrounded them, and the sense of internal danger.

They mewled for their mother, but all they heard in response was a sinister laugh.

_The Present_

The kits huddled together in the dark room. A large tom entered the room. He was completely black with a scar across his eye and part of his ear missing.

"Hello." he said in a calm, even voice. "I am Sarmicc (sarmik). I am your new father." He said with a warm smile that could only be read as friendly.

"You're not our father, where is our father?" whimpered the largest kit.

"Where is our mother?" asked the second kit, even more pitifully than the first.

"Your mother and father are dead." His friendly smile melted into a cruel smirk, "She was nuisance that got in the way of your capture. He came home when he heard your mother's screams. Though he put up no fight at all, he had seen too much, so we slit his throat."

Each kitten didn't understand what was happening.

"They can't die, their our parents." The littlest said in a small sobbing voice.

Sarmicc chuckled and slapped the kitten crying the loudest. Crimson blood leaked from the wound. Silence fell over the room.

"Crying is showing weakness," he said in a voice deep and unforgiving, "and to survive here, you need to be strong." A sinister expression broke on his face. "To become one of the clan."


	2. Chapter 2

_A Rude Awakening_

Sunlight dulled by dark clouds filtered through the few small holes in the roof. The only sound Sarmicc could hear was the quiet breathing of the kits asleep in the corner.

It was his first assignment for the clan, he was new, and new cats always get the annoying tasks.

Not easy, annoying.

Even then Macavity didn't trust him yet. It was an honor for those who are not trusted to be able to train new "recruits."

He sighed.

Walking over to the bucket, he dumped the cold water all over the poor young cats. It was the gentlest wake-up-call that they would ever receive.

_Cold_

A shiver went through each of the kits. They had not stopped spasming for nearly 10 seconds straight; when they finally remembered where they were.

Each was desperately tired and hungry, but those feelings were forgotten when Sarmicc spoke in a commandingly quiet voice, "What are your names?"

Each kitten cowered quietly until Sarmicc yelled "WHAT ARE YOUR NAMES?"

The kittens, overcome with fear, were quiet again until the largest, and bravest said, "Maris (mAriss), Falon (falON), Gav, and Tik."

"Those are not names." Sarmicc said and spat in their direction. "Tonight you shall get names. Your master will give you real names. And you will accept them gratefully. Come." He said in a friendly voice with a cold undertone.

_Master_

The kittens were thrown into a sack. Even if they had had room, they probably would have huddled together anyways.

The journey seemed to take ages, maybe even a day, but probably lasted only a few minutes.

Nothing was certain in the place

Upon arrival, the bag was thrown a short distance, with the kits inside it. A voice with the same commanding inflictions as Sarmicc's, but with a greater demand for power rolled across the space with a nearly detectable sound wave.

"Get them the HELL out of that bag!"

Soon the kite were tossed out, a queen by their side. She had ginger fur with a devilish-red undertone. There were scars all over her, mingling with small faint spots where her over coat met her soft, feathery white underbelly. A nearly identical cat, only smaller, with a brown undertone to her fur sat a few feet away.

Both had a sort of determined misery in their eyes.

"Return to me, Bomby" said the large cat that seemed to be in charge.

"Let the ceremony commence" Sarmicc, stated, almost asked.

"State your names. Largest to smallest. I shall start, then my queens, then you kits will state yours." A large bolt of lightning flashed and thunder poured across the land.

"Macavity."

"Bombalurina"—The red ginger cat

"Demeter."—The true ginger cat

"Our na--" the largest kitten, Maris, started quietly but was stopped quickly by Sarmicc, in hopes Macavity would not hear.

"You're lucky I don't execute you both." Macavity said, nearly in response to Maris's words.

"EACH CAN SPEAK FOR THEIR OWN!" he said louder.

"Maris" whimpered the bravest

"Falon"

"Gav"

"Tik"

"Those are not names," Macavity stated in a bitter voice, "And that was the last time you shall dishonor yourselves in saying them. Your new names are as follows;

large female- Xaria (ekZaria)

large male- Tacol (taKOL)

second largest female- Benon (beNON)

runt female- Sithil (siTHIL).

You shall now rest briefly, for at dawn, your true introduction to the clan begins."


	3. Chapter 3

_Paradise_

Maris ran through the rout-iron gate.

There it was.

Home.

"Maris! What happened?" cried her mother.

"We were taken but we escaped when they were sleeping!" Maris stammered, out of breath.

"Maris, who is 'we'? Where are your siblings?" she asked worriedly, "And who id that?"

Maris turned to where her mother was pointing.

Macavity.

She screamed as an acidic sensation singed her fur.

_Meanwhile_

Sarmicc stared at the sleeping kittens.

Like he did yesterday.

And will do tomorrow.

He sighed.

He looked over each sleeping kit individually.

Xaria (he was no longer even allowed to think the kits REAL names) had always reminded her of Demeter. She had the same ginger coat has her and Bombalurina, only slightly lighter ginger, maybe, but with a sandy undertone. She had a white underbelly that stretched up her chest and to her face. This fur still had the soft, feathery appearance of a kitten. It would look ragged and torn pre-maturely.

Talcol was almost impossibly related. Instead of a sandy coat with variations of grey and white sections all over, he had a pure grey coat. He was blue-ish- grey all over, except for one white paw.

Benon strongly resembled her sister, but with a gray-ish undertone to her fur. This made it hard to see the longer, ginger fur. This ginger fur, however, was plainly visible where it met and overlapped her white under belly about half a paw's length.

Sarmicc sighed as he looked at Sithil. Sithil had been the name of Macavity's father's favorite queen. The kit looked nearly exactly like her sister, but the ginger of her fur was darker, the same shade of Deme's.

Sarmicc realized that he was probably running late.

He dumped the bucket of steaming, almost boiling, hot water, that another cat new to the clan had distributed this morning, all over the kits

_New Task_

Maris screamed as she awoke.

Finally, she got her bearings and realized that her escape had been a dream.

Sarmicc paced in front of the kits. She looked around and saw parts of her sibling's fur had been singed off. Not quite completely, but enough to give them all a ragged look, with fur shorter in some places, longer in others.

"As of today, you are only to call each other by your REAL names, the ones you were given by your master. The other names are now to be considered slave names. Is this understood?"

Maris glared at him.

"IS THIS UNDERSTOOD?" Sarmicc yelled and slashed the paw of the nearest kit.

"Yes." Maris said, fearing for her brother's paw.

"Yes, FATHER" Sarmicc corrected. "Let us continue." he mumbled under his breath.

"Today you will start your training. You will be trained for one month and tested for five. If you are still alive after that, you are considered a clan member." he glanced at Sithil "Some are granted special exceptions to this rule, like the queens you saw yesterday. They trained for one month and tested for seven. This was to insure all offspring they bring into the clan have warrior blood."

"Your next assignment, training, starts in one hour. Enjoy your last glimpse of kittenhood."


	4. Chapter 4

_Training_

Training was excruciatingly hard. For two hours they would run up and down piles of junkyard trash.

Then, they would learn how to attack.

To slit a throat.

To disembowel.

Through this, the kittens matured. They lost their kitten coats. They forgot what their mother smelled like.

At the end of the month, they were changed on the inside.

Thankfully, it was for the better.

_Morning Punishment_

Sarmicc woke the kits with boiling water.

"Talcol, you still think of your siblings with their other names, slave names. As this is a disgusting habit that the others have broken, here is your punishment." Sarmicc said as soon as the kits had awoke and gotten into a line.

The rest of the kits had accepted that the names were forcefully part of them, and did not even remember their own.

He poured the rest of the boiling water on Talcol.

He screamed on the inside, but to show weakness would get him a worse punishment.

That display only passed in about half a minute, as the multiple scars that were now on the kits reminded them to not rebel.

Xaria found this disgusting, but through her rebelling at training, Sarmicc had found it more effective to hurt her siblings as a punishment.

Sarmicc sighed as if that had been hard work. "Today, you shall see your first glimpse of what testing will be like. You shall watch this as the last day of training, putting your lessons on profiling the enemy to the test."

"Yes, Father." the kits said attentively. They wanted to be defiant, and usually they would only sound attentive because they would get punished otherwise, but curiosity had gotten the best of them, as it often does with cats, and they wanted to know what testing was like.

"We will live in five minutes, the enemy awaits.."

Xaria groaned on the inside. Sarmicc was always so specific, yet so vague. He gave them details like that, but none on whom the enemy was. It was always so frustrating!

Sarmicc blindfolded the kits. It had been one of their training exercises to track blind, so they could follow him easily.

_Testing_

Sarmicc led them to a large open building. They sat on the sidelines with the "Mothers" and "Fathers" of testing kits. Across the stadium was the other group of watching kits. Their lack of scars showed that they were clan born.

An announcer read the schedule of the next three groups of testing kits.

Xaria's heart leaped! They would test in pairs! She could help her siblings!

Nearly shaking with excitement she watched the first two kits, Hesdorg and Shanlen, according to the announcer, entered the arena.

The match started and Xaria looked around for where they would release the opponent.

Suddenly Shanlen leaped onto Hesdorg and started to bite at his unprotected underbelly.

A cold realization came to Xaria as blood leaked out of Hesdorg's bite wounds.

She glance over all of the scars on Shanlen and her opponent, and on all the "Parents" in the arena.

They were to fight other kittens.

They would not test in pairs.

Shanlen leaped back as Hesdorg started to scratch her face. This brought a rage over her. Her face had been the only part of her body free of scars.

She leaped, bit and clawed at his throat.

He made a gesture that Sarmicc told them was surrendering, and a large cat walked out from the sidelines and dragged a heavily bleeding Hesdorg out of the arena.

"The fight is to the death or surrender. If you surrender, you are never heard from or seen again. They bring you out of the junkyard and leave you in the Human's road. Never surrender, for death in the arena is honored. Death outside the arena will give all of your siblings an extra two weeks of fighting. If you are not heavily wounded when you surrender, than they heavily wound you before you leave the junk yard. Any questions?" Sarmicc whispered as the next fight began.


	5. Chapter 5

_Upon Awakening_

Xaria shook the steaming water off her fur. A few days ago, examining her siblings, she realized the reason that they used hot water instead of cold.

Though hot water was less painful than icy- water, it singed off the kitten fur that gave kittens a soft, furry look.

_Before_

After assembling, Sarmicc looked over each of the cats, and gave them tips. Then, they went over all of the special techniques that Sarmicc had taught them.

He even gave them special grooming time to make sure they looked 'not cute, but not poor.'

Then he told them what was going to happen;

"You will arrive at the arena, but enter through the competitor doorway. There you will receive your fighting schedules. Fear not, you will never have to fight each other, unless Macavity chooses to, which happens sometimes, but very rarely. Are there any questions?"

After a few moment of silence, Sithil replied "No, father."

_Arrival_

Upon arrival, they entered the competitors' doorway, which was crowded with worrying "Parents" and their "kits." Sarmicc met with an older clan member and got a schedule.

"Seeing as you are new, you are scheduled at the very end, to let you learn your competition. Remember your lessons in profiling the enemy. They will be your greatest advantage in the testing. Remember, never surrender. Your matches will be;

Xaria- you will face another she-kit named Venna.

Talcol- you will face a male kit named Yutle.

Benon- you will face a she-kit named Charnun.

And Sithil- your opponent is a she-kit named Sarka.

If you wish, now is the time to meet your opponent, remember, they are not your friend. Either you kill them, or they kill you. Run along." He said as the kit uneasily dispanded.

After a few minutes alone in the crowded chaos, Xaria found a "Parent" tell a kit his name. She looked at the group and a scared looking she-kit stared at him wide eyed.

"Is she new like me?" Venna asked.

"Yes, you will only face new opponents, like yourselves." her 'Mother' replied.

She sized Venna up. From afar, she appeared to be a tortoise-shell tabby. She looked scrawny from afar, but Xaria looked closer and saw rippling muscles under her unfrightening exterior.

She felt sick to her stomach. She would have to kill this kitten. She would have to kill the young cat she was looking at.

_Testing_

Sarmicc called his 'kits' to him.

"The testing is beginning for some, so we need to get out of their way. Let us warm up."

And so they did.

Throughout warm-ups, Xaria had a knot in her stomach. She had to kill the young kit she had seen. Nothing in the world could get this thought out of her mind. That young, innocent kit. . .

"Xaria! Don't lose focus!" Sarmicc snapped at her.

In the distance, an announcer called for Group 5 kits. "That is us." Sarmicc breathed.

She could tell he was nervous.

_Venna_

Xaria was in the third paring.

She was the first of her siblings to fight.

The announcer called her name, then Venna's.

She entered the door to the large arena.

She felt utterly numb.

Looking around, she realized this was the only place in the clan to have light. It was aimed perfectly, so she could not see who was watching.

Her eyes floated to Venna.

She was scared. She was stiff. Her eyes were wide despite the brightest of light shining on them.

Xaria's heart skipped a beat. The thought that had run through her mind a thousand times screamed inside her brain.

Her heart skipped a beat.

The announcer counted down to the start of the match.

5, she heard something faint in the distance.

4, all other noise seemed to die down just for her to hear this.

3, timed seemed to slow; movement blurred.

2, Sithil was whimpering quietly, "Please don't kill my sister. Xaria, please live."

1.

A gong sounded. Xaria swallowed her fear. She had to live. For her young siblings. She could not leave them with out support right before they battled.

A gong sounded.

Xaria pounced.


	6. Chapter 6

_Midair_

Fresh, cool air flowed over Xaria. Her eyes shone. Her siblings needed her to live.

_Grief_

The next few seconds had been so much of a blur, that nothing had been remembered. Blood spilled into a crimson pool around the body of a kit, much too young to die.

The victor examined her paws. They were the same crimson as the ground. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears. 'The same blood that I have spilled from this cat' she thought bitterly.

'How could I have done this? There had to be another way. . .' she racked her brain, but there had been no other way. The realization did not comfort her, but made the sharp spikes resting on her heart turned to a dull squeezing ache.

She walked away with tears in her eyes, crying silently for she would be punished otherwise.

Xaria blinked and sighed as she exited the arena.

All she could think about was the wide-eyed kit that no longer existed because of her.

Venna.

_Bittersweet Greeting_

Sarmicc praised Xaria as she left the arena.

She walked past him.

"Xaria!" her second smallest sister whimpered.

She greeted them with a glance and continued past them.

She passed the guards at the exit of the arena.

They gave her a questioning glace as she left without a "Parent" but did not follow her when they spotted the blood on her paws.

It was raining.

She wiped the blood off her paws in the mud.

Then she reentered the arena. Her siblings would fight soon.

_Talcol_

Xaria got back just in time to see Talcol leave the arena. She would be frightened, but she felt numb.

Numb.

Talcol seemed to shrink when he saw Yulte. The cat he was fighting was older than him!

Xaria was outraged. Then she remembered Venna.

Venna was younger and smaller than her.

Venna.

3.

2.

1.

And so the fight began.

Yulte pounced onto Talcol. His massive body completely covered him!

Then, Yulte went limp.

Talcol heaved the massive cat off of him, and was drenched with blood.

He had slit Yulte's throat, and opened his underbelly.

His eyes were wide.

He was scared.

And yet there was only half the guilt Xaria felt.

'And rightly so' she thought 'he was at a disadvantage, he had to defend himself, Venna never could have hurt me.' she thought bitterly.

He exited the arena. He was shaking violently.

Then, as Xaria had, he exited the arena. She followed.

"You were defending yourself; there was nothing you could do." Xaria said softly.

_Sithil_

She hurried back to see Sithil before she risked her life against her own will.

"I'm scared." Sithil whispered softly, "I'm scared." She started to cry silently. Xaria told her, "Everything will be alright, we were trained well, and you will win."

Sithil left to fight.

A black cat that was nearly twice as large as her entered from the opposite side.

Xaria sighed. It was nearly impossible to be smaller than Sithil.

The match began.

Sithil pounced on top of the large black cat, biting the back of its neck and scratching its eyes. When it was stunned, she opened its throat.

It made Xaria sick that such a scene made her proud of her sister.

_Benon_

It was her last sister's turn.

She could see Benon felt she had a lot to live up to.

She entered the arena with a sleek white cat on the other side. It had visible layers of rippling muscle.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

The white cat pounced. Benon's body went limp. Xaria's blood went cold.

Her sister's body lay there unmoving. Sarmicc swallowed and went out to collect her body, as the losing kit's "Parents" had to do.

Xaria was in a haze. Her sister was dead.

Dead.

Like Venna, she had been killed on the battle field.

Dead.

_Death_

The rest of the day was a blur of grief. Her sister was dead.

Sarmicc talked about what a great fighter she was, and Xaria realized that they were back at the house.

Her sister was a limp bundle, wrapped in red cloth. To 'symbolize valor' Sarmicc had said.

Xaria knew it was to hide the blood.

They carried her body, with cold tears in their eyes, to the graveyard of warriors. They dug a small, but deep hole, and left her in it. To rest. Forever. Xaria could not feel anything. She did not notice that they were once again back at the house, and she did not remember the trip.

None of them felt anything.

Their sister was dead.


End file.
